The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fife targets 350 jobs through regeneration of industrial estates
Councillors agree to approve draft city region deal
A major investment programme for Fife, which forms part of the Edinburgh City Deal, aims to create up to 350 jobs in the next decade.
Councillors in the kingdom have agreed to approve the draft Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, which will secure more than £1.3 billion of investment for the city region over the next 15 years.
The package includes a specific offer for Fife of £35 million for a new Fife Industrial Estates Regeneration Programme, which aims to plough cash into infrastructure and modern business premises to support economic development in the area.
Fife Council will be expected to find funding of up to £14m towards a total package of around £49m over the project’s 11-year timescale.
A business case could be drawn up as early as November.
Officials have set themselves a target of creating between 300 and 350 jobs by March 2029 and delivering or unlocking 10,000 square metres of development space in the same period.
The aim is also to try to attract £30m of private investment in that timescale.
The city deal document states: “Innovation is being defined as ‘doing things in new, hopefully better, ways’ that ultimately leads to a transformational change in business performance and local economy mix and strength.
“In the longer-term, Fife businesses could sustain and improve their economic performance through increasing the value they generate from their data by adopting digital technologies, to create new products, new supply chain arrangements, new business models, individually and through collaboration, thereby creating/ safeguarding jobs and turnover.”
The aim is to create a “long-term investment programme in Fife that can be replicated elsewhere in the city region through other economic development and investment projects”.
Council co-leader David Ross said: “This Edinburgh and South East of Scotland City Region Deal investment is helping to deliver a transformational Fife Industrial Estates Regeneration Programme.
“The ambition is to develop ‘factories of the future’ by constructing new industrial and commercial stock and ensure that Fife’s technology parks and industrial estates have cutting-edge digital capability and are energy compliant.
“The regeneration of our industrial estates will enable a new approach to working with businesses in Fife to deliver a stronger, more innovative business community, with more employers and jobs.”
The ambition is to develop ‘factories of the future.’ DAVID ROSS